Monday, December 23, 2013

Festivus: A Celebration (For the Rest of Us) through Artifacts

By Kelli Huggins, Education Coordinator

December 23rd is Festivus, the satirical holiday
popularized by Seinfeld in the late
1990s.A reaction against the
commercialization of Christmas, Festivus was an annual tradition of the family
of show writer Dan O’Keefe before it got the TV treatment.Festivus celebrations feature an unadorned
Festivus pole, the Airing of Grievances, and Feats of Strength.

Now, how does Festivus relate to the history of Chemung
County?Well, truthfully it doesn’t
really.However, since Festivus has
become such a cultural phenomenon (for example, I’ve never celebrated it yet
somehow I have learned all of its traditions through cultural osmosis), I
thought that it would be fun to use it as a lens through which to highlight
some objects in our collection.No, they
aren’t Festivus objects, but we can still have some fun looking at them in the
spirit of the day.

Let’s start with the Festivus pole.The centerpiece of any Festivus celebration,
this is typically an unadorned aluminum pole.Here is a flag pole from our collection. Now, this is wood and the eagle at the top
and the tassel would make it a little overdressed for a traditional Festivus pole, but we’ll
go with it anyway.

Next, we’ll move on to the Airing of Grievances.In this tradition, one tells others all of
the ways that they have been a disappointment during the year.To illustrate the Airing of Grievances, I
present to you samples from a newspaper column written by Robert Quillen in the
1920s and 1930s.In these articles,
Quillen discusses all of the problems that he sees with modern society, from
immoral ways to a lack of “proper” education.He also wrote a series of open letters to his “flapper” daughter that I
will explore in a future blog post.Below
are two examples of Quillen’s work, colorfully titled, “Woe to the Man Who Has
Only a Fork When the Soup is Served” and “If You Flavor the Ice Cream with
Garlic, Why Blame the Freezer?”

Finally, the main event: Feats of Strength.In a Festivus celebration, after dinner the
guests wrestle or otherwise vie for physical dominance against their host.I’ve selected a couple of items that showcase
various types of strength.

Cyclone Williams was a local African-American boxer.His wonderful letterhead features him in his
boxing attire and bills him as “Elmira’s Sensational Battler.”

This is an image from an early Chemung County fair.An acrobat performs his impressive stunts as
a crowd of dapper spectators look on.Notice the acrobat hanging from the bar with one arm- a feat of strength
indeed, especially as there is no safety net below.

Mission

The Chemung County Historical Society seeks to deepen its audiences’ understanding of the past and the role of history in our futures by collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history and material culture of Chemung County and the surrounding region.